Forum:Automated Library Data Entries
Notes (2019)[edit]
Curious to know how the Library Data Entries (Automated) works and how the data shown their on some pages gets to those pages.
It reads citations or hyperlinks.
- I can't recall which.
- I believe the talented Thomas Jones-Low wrote that code. Ask him.
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 18:04, 24 September 2019 (EDT)
- The Template:LibraryEntries uses DynamicPageList, a wikimedia extension for running various queries against the underlying database. This template is generating (effectively) a slightly filtered version of the list generated by the "What links here" tool (see right hand menu). When you add a link to the New Traveller: Showing the Sunburst in an article, the list in the book article will automatically be updated. Normally I recommend using the Template: Ludography cite to set the link as it formats the entry correctly. Tjoneslo (talk) 17:22, 24 September 2019 (EDT)
So, hyperlinks.
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 18:04, 24 September 2019 (EDT)
If you have a look at Dark Nebula (game), you will see there are a small number of Library Entries duplicated under Automated & Public. I assume this is because overtime they have been added to the various pages and therefore show under Automated. Would it be a 'Tidyup excerise' to then go back to pages and remove the duplicate entries from Public?
It's ok to have redundancy. It's part of the process of expanding the entries to make them easily searchable.
- Please see: Book Mapping
- If you'd like to do more, by all means, but it's not strictly necessary. In some cases, it might not be preferable, because some codign searches for interlinking or can be searched for with the "What links here" function.
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 08:18, 29 September 2019 (EDT)
- The big difference between the automated generated list and the hand edited lists is the former is simply an undifferentiated alphabetical list of entries, whereas the latter is usually grouped by some set of headers or another.
- I have some ideas about how to add groupings to the automated list but no designs to demonstrate. Tjoneslo (talk) 07:46, 7 October 2019 (EDT)
Thanks for your input, Thomas.
- - Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 10:32, 8 October 2019 (EDT)
Whilst I am working my way through all the Product Entries, would it be worth removing entries from the Public List if they now appear within the Automated List?
Bsycamore (talk) 19:36, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
I will leave this to your discretion. The pros and cons of the idea are expressed above. I did spend some time trying to be clever about updating the LibraryEntries template, but encountered several problems (bugs in the underlying DLP extension, query issues, and so on). One thought was the Template:LibraryEntries takes a parameter of a category name (e.g. Ships, Worlds, Goods, etc). So include several of the templates, one for each important categories in the book. I'll try to see what this looks like. Tjoneslo (talk) 01:47, 7 January 2020 (UTC)
I just updated the Template:LibraryEntries to allow using different categories and separating the lists into (up to) three specific lists, and a general list with everything else. Directions for use are in the template article. Please let me know how that goes. Tjoneslo (talk) 12:25, 8 January 2020 (UTC)